Clay kneading 丨 Clay kneading is a traditional folk art. Most of the modern popular materials are low-temperature polymeric clay, also known as "soft pottery", its color is rich, non-toxic and environmentally friendly, has high ductility and plasticity, after low-temperature baking, the work can be preserved for a long time, with no mildew, no cracking, no deformation, no fading and other characteristics. Using simple tools such as knives, scissors, hairpins, and pattern molds, the kneading artists create works of clay through a variety of techniques such as kneading, rubbing, twisting, cutting, and dotting, and the characters made are varied and lifelike.
My classmates called me "Clay Man Ding"
Ding Jianhua's studio, the house is filled with a variety of exquisite kneading works, colorful and lifelike. Ding Jianhua liked to pinch plasticine since he was a child, in the 1980s, like other children, Ding Jianhua liked to watch "Journey to the West", "The Legend of the Archery Hero", "Huo Yuanjia", and the characters in the TV series became the subject of his creation and kneading.
"The other children watched TV, so they went to play, and I closed the room alone and began to pinch the clay people, Sun Wukong, Hong Qigong, Mei Chaofeng, Quanzhen Qizi, Chengzhen... I have pinched each one", speaking of the characters in these TV series, Ding Jianhua still remembers vividly, "Those were all the worlds when I was a child".
"At that time, there was a TV series called 'Clay Man Zhang', so my classmates called me 'Clay Man Ding'." Because the kneaded clay people are particularly impressive, Ding Jianhua also represented the school to participate in the primary and secondary school arts and crafts works competition, and won a prize in one fell swoop (at that time, there was no prize, only 10 works were selected to win), and since then, the fame of "Clay Man Ding" has become more and more famous, and even the Hangzhou Youth Palace will reserve a booth in advance every year for Ding Jianhua to display his works.
But in his father's eyes, Ding Jianhua pinched the mud man as a "plaything and lost his will". Once, after watching the play, he hid in his small room and began to "engage in creation", and agreed with his father to sleep at 10:30 at the latest. But when Dad woke up at 12:30, he found that he was still pinching and pinching. Dad was completely on fire, and immediately threw away everything he had pinched.
The family does not agree, and the students must focus on their studies after all. As the leisure time in junior high school became less and less, Ding Jianhua and his hobbies from childhood also gradually drifted away, "Since then, I have never touched again... If you insisted on it at that time, your life trajectory might be different."
Go back to the beginning and have fun with the mud
After graduation, Ding Jianhua engaged in tourism-related work, because the work requires frequent communication with people, introverted he also slowly changed to extroverted, and the tourism industry, Ding Jianhua has been doing it for more than 20 years.
In 2016, a sudden change broke Ding Jianhua's daily life, and the death of his family made him fall into the trough of his life. At this time, he regained his childhood hobby, clay kneading, and seemed to find the comfort of his soul, and the unfinished love affair of his childhood continued from then on.
"To do something happy for yourself, whether others recognize it or not, I first identify with myself...", Ding Jianhua frankly said, clay kneading can release and relieve pressure, release imagination, through the temperature of the hand, present their inner world, present an image that originally existed in books or television, which is an unparalleled sense of satisfaction.
Take the clay kneading details shaping, a lot of modern technology is the use of line drawing pen directly outline the line, and the traditional technical rules pay attention to "sticking", even if the thick lines like hair, but also through the twisting of the fingers, it is precisely because of the persistence in the use of such a fine traditional technique, Ding Jianhua's work "Qianlong Shengshi" in the Zhejiang Museum held in the "Forbidden City Qianlong Cultural Relics Exhibition" exhibition, won the Palace Museum experts unanimous praise.
In recent years, Ding Jianhua has spent his time making one or two works every year, "Four Great King Kongs", "Four Great Honest Officials", "Popular Figures", "Breaking New Ground", "Listening to the Qintu", "Anti-epidemic Pioneer"... Each work is integrated into Ding Jianhua's thoughts and painstaking efforts over the years.
The zai loves to take people into the mud pit
In addition to creating large-scale works every year, Ding Jianhua also spares no effort to promote clay kneading, and the kneading courses held in communities and schools are loved by all ages, Q version of Qianlong, cute tiger head pillows, decorations on cups... "Young people's thoughts will be more fashionable, to attract young people and children to experience, you must go to their inner world."
Ding Jianhua introduced that in today's traditional culture is getting more and more attention, more parents are willing to let their children participate in intangible cultural heritage handicraft courses, compared to playing mobile games, such courses are more meaningful, children in the process of coordinating the eyes, brain, hands, not only calm down, but also understand the history and culture of Hangzhou.
There are more people who like clay kneading, urging Ding Jianhua to open a live broadcast on Douyin, and a large number of fans will ask for advice on production methods, which is very meaningful in Ding Jianhua's view, "Everyone is like-minded, play with you, willing to share the joy of kneading with you, I feel very happy ...".
Ding Jianhua laughed and said that he was a person who brought people into the mud pit, and he hoped that more interested people would participate in clay kneading and plastic, and together they would pass on and carry forward this craft.
When childhood hobbies become a lifelong career, we see a childlike heart that never grows old forever young.
Traditional craftsmen who create for ingenuity
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